Airlines: Delta CEO asked CDC to reduce quarantine time, flight attendants slam new rules

Yahoo Finance Video
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Yahoo Finance's Adam Shapiro discusses the CDC's shortened quarantined guidelines urged by Delta CEO Ed Bastian and how airline workers are responding.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Well, as we have seen COVID cases rise in the US to move past that record of 250,000 set last year back in January, but we have seen more and more flight cancellations pile up. A bit less than what we saw on Monday and Tuesday, but still more than 700 flights cancelled according to FlightAware.

And while travelers might be upset about that, there are flight attendants and the flight attendants union pretty upset about some changes there, especially after maybe a push from the CEO of Delta may or may not have led to some of those changes coming at the CDC.

And for more on that, I want to bring on Yahoo Finance's Adam Shapiro with the latest check on what's going on in the airline sector. Adam.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Well, there's the kerfuffle over the letter that Ed Bastian, the CEO at Delta, sent to the CDC. We should point out that it was also signed, this letter, by Henry Ting, who is a doctor and the chief health officer at Delta, and Carlos Del Rio, who's also a doctor and a medical advisor at Delta. And what they said in this letter dated December 21 to the CDC director Rochelle Walensky was, quote, "to address the potential impact of the current isolation policy safely, we propose a five-day isolation from symptom onset for those who experience a breakthrough infection."

OK, so does this sound familiar? Before the CDC announced they were changing the quarantine guidelines to five days, they got the push from Delta saying, look, this is what we need. And now we know that the CDC-- Rochelle Walensky has actually said that their consideration in going to the five-day protocol was what they thought-- forget the science but what they thought Americans could tolerate.

Step into this fray the president of the airline Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO Sara Nelson, who's very upset with all of this, that they're pushing flight attendants to move too fast if they should become ill.

Should point out, by the way, that the AFA and Sara Nelson represent the flight attendants at United and at Spirit Air, Wisconsin, Alaska. They do not represent the flight attendants at Delta yet. They're trying to organize, Zack.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, it's all been very--

BRIAN CHEUNG: No, Adam--

ZACK GUZMAN: --interesting to see that play out. Brian, I know-- I don't know if you got a flight cancelled, Brian, but mine certainly was. I'll continue to milk that for a second day.

BRIAN CHEUNG: No, I did not, but I wanted to ask Adam, I mean, just kind of how do you think this all plays out? Because what is interesting is that the CDC guidelines are effective as of whenever the time it was that they made that change. So does that mean that Delta and these other airlines have the ability to start pulling people back into work? Because it seems like, at least as far as the CDC goes, they've kind of sided with one side over the other.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Well, it depends on what camp you fall into on this. Look, the airline management is in a precarious situation because they already have staffing shortages, and they're all trying to hire, right? You have United trying to hire pilots. You have American and Delta also hiring pilots, but United is making the huge push, plus they have a shortage of crews.

In fact, it was Scott Kirby two weeks ago who testified that they have a hundred flights on the ground every day that they would have in the air but they just don't have the people. Put into that the omicron mix and you've got a problem, but everyone's expecting that omicron will pass.

On the labor side, when was the last time labor had this much leverage going forward? I mean, at American, their concern is raising enough cash to finance their debt. At Delta, on February 14, on Valentine's Day, Delta has to show me the money if you're a Delta employee because that is-- historically, not last year, but that historically is the day that Delta announces the profit-sharing plan with its employees.

So put this all into perspective. You've got the flight attendants union trying to organize at Delta. You have the Delta CEO sending a letter to the CDC and getting what that CEO wants. And you're heading towards this kind of inflection point. Who do you think's going to win?

If I could answer that question, I'd be a very wealthy man, and I can't answer it. Therefore, I'm middle class.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Wouldn't we all? No, this story definitely has a little bit of everything, our producer was joking. It's got-- it's got everything-- labor problems, airlines, delays at the airport, memes. It's just really fantastic. We'll see how it all plays out. Yahoo Finance's Adam Shapiro.